El Duque Azul meets the Damonic Forces of Dr. Carnivean!

A year ago the undead might of El Duque Azul met the Daemonic Forces of Dr. Carnivean in a 2500 point battle where nobody died!

Legio Victoris Light Expedition Force and the Kabal of the Blackened Sun

This is another league battle, with the Kabal of the Blackened Sun facing the armored might of the Imperium: the Legio Victoris Light Expeditionary Force! These league-game battle reports are not in chronological order, they’re just happening in almost random order as I go through my mental list of things I want to post about.

Shadowklan comes to Conflict!

So I’ve made the cut to get in to Conflict GT to play 40k! Even better, two of my Ordo-mates will be playing 40k too! Sean will be taking the spot of someone that’s already paid but has to drop out, and Eric was already in.

Square Bases in 40k? Who cares?!

Despite what one might think from seeing the armies I talk about here, I'm primarily a Fantasy player (at least that's what I keep telling myself). My first "complete" army was a Daemon army I put together for Alamo 08. It's not the greatest thing ever, in fact didn't score well at all (47 out of 60?), but it's done and it's mine. And it's on square bases.

Bobby's First Battle with his Space Marines!

My son has participated in my Warhammer hobby probably as long as he can remember. As I've starting digging through my boxes of Marine stuff, he fell in love with them, so...the marines became his!

Bloody Valentine Warriors of Chaos - Starting the Painting!

Well I have all the models for the 2250 list I'm going to try to field for our Bloody Valentine tournament. If I get these done as fast as I hope, I might use this if I get in to Conflict, too...otherwise, Daemons it is!

Rogue Trader! Underway on "The Duty-Bound"!!

We finally started our Rogue Trader campaign tonight, and it was great! This was the first time we'd all sat down together, so the first thing we did was work through ship creation to create our fine vessel, "The Duty-Bound"!

Forces from Craftworld Cor Mira and the Kabal of the Blackened Sun

This was my second game in our 40k League. Craftworld Eldar meet their long-lost kin from Commorragh!

Salamander Strike Force Omega and the Kabal of the Blackened Sun

This was the fourth of my games in the Ordo Ineptus 40k League. The Kabal had been doing well so far, sitting at 2 wins and a draw going in to this match. I think Dark Eldar are particularly suited to fighting “standard” mechanized Marines, and that’s exactly what my opponent was. The Salamander player is a very experienced player that makes extremely competent lists, but he went out of his way in this league to make a list that was more “fluffy” than “hard”, and I commend him for it. However, it did leave him extremely vulnerable to the forces of Commorragh!

Ordo Ineptus "Bloody Valentine" Warhammer Fantasy Tournament

Ordo Ineptus is going to be holding a small 14-participant Warhammer Fantasy tournament on Sunday, Feb 7th from 0900 to 1800 at the Hobbytown in Brookfield, CT. There will be a $15 registration fee. Armies are to be 2250 points or less. Limited Special “Named” Characters (see detailed rules). Three battles, two hours each. Prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall; Best Appearance; Best Sportsman; and Best General. Full rules package and registration at http://ordo-ineptus.com/default.aspx Hope to see you there!

Waaagh! Orky thoughts about spreading out!

So I've been playing my Orks for awhile now. I started putting them together with the models from Black Reach, and added some things I thought would be fun. I wanted to primarily stay a hordish army, avoiding the 'Evil Sunz' speedy lists (not only from a table-top preference, but because of the effect on my wallet...those vehicles aren't cheap!). As a list-building philosophy, I noticed that the "tournament" lists all seemed to have a big focus on taking units/weapons that were good for killing the different targets they might find: a few anti-armour weaons, a few anti-horde weapons, a few anti-MEQ weapons, etc. I thought that I'd focus on denying targets for the anti-armour weapons and overwelm the anti-horde weapons. I've been using 3-4 big boy units for awhile now (after some semi-successful forays in to using giant herds of grots) in combination with some light shooting, maneuver, and decoy elements: Shokk Attack Gun, Lootas, Warbikers (with Klaw Nob), Nobs in a Trukk. All those extra things, nobs, bikers, nob-bikes, lootas, etc. really only are there in my list to help the boyz get to where they need to be: fighting the enemy. Popping APCs and absorbing firepower are what I want them to do, while the boyz run their little green buttz off to giit sum klomp'n! My Ork lists have served me pretty well. I think I blend the hordey-ness of many large boyz mobs with shooty or fast hard-hitting units pretty well. I've managed to win a small local tournament, do well in our local store's 'pyramid' league, hang with the big boys and end up in a giant tie for 3rd (one point behind the two-way tie for 1st!) in a larger tournament...but I don't attribute those wins to my playing ability, or to my list-making ability...I attribute them to one thing: Spreading out. Now I know this sounds obvious, but the more spread out the boyz are, the fewer of them get hit by templates and blasts. It never seems to surprise me how few people really take the time to spread out. Early on in my Orkish endeavors I purchased a Gale-Force 9 tool: The Tactical Tempalte. http://www.gf9.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=235 This thingy makes it a breeze to ensure all my Boyz are spread out 2" apart. Do you know how many models are hit by a Blast template if they're spread 2" apart? That's right...one! If in a 'squarish' formation spread out 2" apart, only 5 are hit by a large blast! And Flamers should only hit 3! Spreading out, however, is a monstrous pain. It takes a long time to deploy, a long time to move, and my opponent probably is annoyed. But it keeps the boyz alive long enough to do what they're created for: Klomp'n! So you aspiring ork players out there...take the time and be patient enough to spread out! Minimize your exposure to the more common anti-horde weapons (blasts and templates) and your boyz will thank you by kicking butt!

A Rant: Warhammer "Personality", or Flaming Douche?

So I was reading some other blogs today, as I often do during lunch-time or when trying to avoid doing any real work while looking busy at my computer. I was thinking about these Warhammer “personalities”…the people that achieve some measure of “fame” in our community. Some I see get their recognition by performing well in competitive environments (i.e. tournaments); others by painting wonderful miniatures; some for being good sources of news or rumors; others by compiling entertaining battle reports; or any combination thereof. I noticed that some of these “personalities” are very pleasant, very encouraging, and seem to genuinely want to do good things for warhammer players. I’ve also noticed that others seem to just want to feed their egos and make their table-top exploits seem a lot more important than they really are. I mean no disrespect to any one in particular. I’ve only met a handful of these “personalities” in person. My opinion after having met them in person was not improved. I just can’t understand people that think they’re important or better than others at a game because they stand on a podium and tell everyone how good they are… Here’s an example, and I mean no disrespect: a player from a nearby club did very well in a tournament event using a Codex that most consider too weak to be really competitive. His blog and forum posts reek of egocentric remarks and thinly-veiled chest-thumping at how his “elite skillz” allowed him to excel with a weak army… But then if you read a little more detail about the games in this tournament, and you find some interesting things: one of the games he played was on a special terrain board with lava in the shape of a chaos star. There were absolutely no passages across the table that did not require multiple crossings of ~2” wide lava moats. This player insisted that the lava be treated as dangerous terrain. His army, almost all skimmers or able to be moved by “alternate” methods, had no fear of the lava, while his opponent lost half his army just from dangerous terrain. Now I ask you…does this person sound like a player with “elite skillz”, or a Win-At-All-Costs douche that thinks that because he can twist the game to allow himself to win, he’s better than the rest of us?

Shadowklan

A few photos of Shadowklan. These are the "trukk nobz" and Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun.

The Conflict GT

Well, I was goaded (Thanks, Sergrum!) in to signing up for The Conflict GT in January. The guy putting it together was very nice to me last year, and is being very generous this year as well. Since I'm so late in signing up, and the waiting lists for both Fantasy and 40k are full, I asked him if I could be on both, with preference on the Fantasy. In short, he said yes... So, I've spent all evening contemplating lists, and think I have something for both. Fantasy is 2250 with no special characters. Fully painted is required, and since the only thing I have painted up is Daemons, Daemons it is... General Tzeentch Herald on Chariot with Master of Sorcery and Spell Breaker BSB Tzeentch Herald on Chariot with Master of Sorcery and Spell Breaker carrying the Great Standard of Sundering Khorne Herald on Jugger with Armour of Khorne Khorne Herald on Jugger with Armour of Khorne 6 Furies 11 Bloodletters 18 Horrors 18 Horrors 5 Flesh Hounds 5 Flesh Hounds 3 Screamers 6 Flamers 2 Fiends This is essentially the same list I used for Alamo GT in 08, but replaced Skulltaker with a Khorne Herald on Jugger and added a fury. For 40k, it's 1750. I came up with this latest and greatest Waaagh! Shadowklan: Warboss on Warbike with Klaw, Bosspole, Squig, Cybork, and Kombi-skorcha 6 Nob Bikers + Painboy with 2 Klaws, Big Choppa, Bosspole, Waaagh! Banner, and Cybork 25 Shoota Boyz with 2 Rokkits + Nob with Klaw and Bosspole 25 Shoota Boyz with 2 Rokkits + Nob with Klaw and Bosspole 25 Choppa Boyz + Nob with Klaw and Bosspole 2 Deffkoptas with Twin-linked Rokkits and Buzzsaws (in seperate squads) and 10 Lootas I'm torn on the 10 Lootas...10 is enough to make for a tasty target for the enemy, a large enough investment in points (around 200) that it's worth his time to throw some shots at them. I've had mixed luck with my Lootas, so am considering replacing them with 11 'ard Boyz with a PK/BP Nob in the Trukk...something fluffy and unexpected, but fitting with the same concept as the larger 2000 point list I just used (more speed to support the bikers). Feedback on either list welcome!

Battle for Salvation 11/21 Mini-Battle Reports

Well as usual I’d had every intention of sitting down Sunday morning while my memory was fresh and sketch out some little maps and do a semi-detailed report of each of the three battles I fought at the Battle for Salvation tournament on Saturday…but instead got distracted with housework and family things, and didn’t give it a moment’s thought, and now I’m here at work wishing I’d taken notes but instead I’m stuck working from a very fuzzy memory to create giant run-on sentences that will leave you as confused as I feel!

Our day started fine: I was only 5 minutes late to pick up Eric, and that was because I’d forgotten about James (sorry!) coming with us, so had to take a kid seat out of the car (I don’t think James’ butt is narrow enough to fit in the baby seat…but maybe…). We were all anxious to get there on time, so decided to wait until after checking in to find breakfast & coffee (I actually cheated and brought some boiled eggs and a peanut-butter and banana sandwich to get me through the morning…the necessity of having a full belly in the morning is a lesson learned from previous day-long gaming events!). We made our way to White Plains easily enough, and despite Google and the GPS giving us different directions to the Salvation Army, Eric proved himself a very capable navigator and we found the place with plenty of time to spare.

We went in to the old church and found a few pews to park our army boxes and butts on. We met up with Sean and Matt, looked around at the terrain, and ran out to find some coffee and food. Fortified, we returned to see how the check-in was going. Things seemed to get moving a bit later than planned, so we had time to look over the competition. I was really surprised at what I found: there were about 4 Eldar players, 3 or 4 CSM players, 1 Necron, 1 Tyranid, about a dozen Imperial Guard, and the rest were all Space Marines (of one variety or another…BA, DA, SW, etc)! Including me, there was ONE Ork player! Waaagh???

After some confusion caused by Ordo with the initial pairings (Sean and I were paired together, but we asked if we could be re-assigned to someone we don’t play…which worked out, as there was a father-son group there that got paired together, so we just traded a bit), we got our tables and out came the plastic soldiers and dice!

I brought a large Waaagh! From Shadowklan led by Gordreg:

Warboss Gordreg on Warbike with Klaw, Squig, Bosspole, Cybork, and Kombi-Skorcha

5 Nobz + Painboy on Warbikes with Cybork, 2 Klaws, a Big Choppa, a Bosspole, and Waaagh Banner (striped so I could allocate wounds)

6 Nobz + Painboy in a Trukk with Ram and Rokkit with Cybork, 2 Klaws, Bosspole, Waaagh Banner and a random Ammo Runt (cuz I needed to spend 3 points!)

10 Kommandos with 2 Burnas led by Snikrot

22 Choppa Boyz plus Nob with Klaw and Bosspole

22 Choppa Boyz plus Nob with Klaw and Bosspole

22 Shoota Boyz with 2 Rokkits plus Nob with Klaw and Bosspole

22 Shoota Boyz with 2 Rokkits plus Nob with Klaw and Bosspole

And two Deffkoptas (in separate squads) with Twin-linked Rokkits and Buzzsaws

The plan was to get in the enemy’s face on turn 1 with the Nobs and Koptas, threatening vehicles and mowing down infantry, then the boyz would clean up whatever was left. Simple and orky! Snikrot was the great unknown for the enemy…something to mess with his head and make him worry. As it turns out, he was critical in all three games.

Game 1

My first game was against a VERY nice young man named Ed with his Chaos Marines. His army included Abaddon with a terminator escort in a Land Raider; three units of CSM in Rhinos; 2 Obliterators; a Vindicator; a Defiler; and a unit of Chosen with mixed load of Meltas and Flamers.

The table we played on was absolutely covered with rivers of lava. We decided it would be kind of silly to make all the lava Dangerous Terrain, so decided to count it as just difficult (dangerous to vehicles, of course). The deployment for this round was Pitched Battle, and the Mission was modified Annihilation: you pick 5 of your enemy’s units, and those are the only ones worth kill points (could only take 3 Dedicated Transports). I chose to pick things that I thought I’d have a good chance to kill and would be killing anyway: I chose the three rhinos, the vindicator, and the obliterators. He chose the truck, my deffkoptas, the nob bikers, and a choppa mob (the one lined up right across from Abaddon).

I won the roll to go first. I deployed the boyz in one big giant line, with choppas on the flanks and shootas in the middle. The Trukk went on the right, the Bikers and Koptas in the middle. His deployment, from my left to right, was Defiler, Vindicator, Rhino, Obliterators, Rhino, Land Raider, Rhino. My scout move took the Koptas right in front of the Vindicator and the left-most Rhino.

He did not seize. I went first, the Koptas moving for side shots on the rhino & vindicator; the nob bikers went flat out, ending up right in front of his vindicator, rhino, and obliterators. The Nob Trukk drove forward, kind of hiding behind some stalagmite-like terrain. The Boyz ran forward as fast as they could, which wasn’t particularly fast. The Rokkits from the Koptas did nothing, so they assaulted! The Kopta on the Rhino got an Immobilized and a Weapon Destroyed. The Kopta on the Vindicator didn’t even get a glance…I managed to roll a 2 and two 1s! Go Ordo!

His first turn, the vindicator moved a bit so it wasn’t a stationary target. The Land Raider zoomed forward 12”, as well as the Rhino on my far right. The “middle” rhino backed up sort of “behind” the Land Raider, while the Obliterators slowly and purposefully shuffled a bit to make room for the CSM to get out of their immobilized rhino. He shot all the CSM at the Nob Bikers, doing nothing. He shot the Vindicator at the Nob Bikers, doing nothing. He shot the Obliterators at the nob bikers, doing nothing. Wow! The Defiler lobbed a shot in to my left-most coppa unit, killing a handful. The terminators got out of their Land Raider, and it looked like they’d be close enough to assault my right-most choppa-boyz….but unfortunately for him he decided to fire first, and killed enough boyz that I was able to take off the front “rank” and leave him unable to assault.

My turn 2, and the warboss directed the nob-bikers in to action! I moved to arrange a combined assault on the disembarked CSM and the Oblits. The remaining deff-kopta ignored the Vindicator, instead moving for the easier kill in the immobile rhino. The Choppas facing Abaddon moved to assault. The Nob Trukk drove forward and those nobs got out ready to assault his right-most Rhino. My shooting from the nobbikers killed a CSM, while the shootas and choppas unloaded on abaddon, killing 3 of his 4 terminator buddies! The Nobs assaulted and blew up the Rhino, the bikers assaulted and killed the oblits and many csm, losing one guy and taking a wound on another. He lost combat and ran, but stayed on the board shooting until turn 3. The Deffkopta killed the rhino. The Choppa mob assaulted Abaddon, doing 1 wound total (to abaddon), losing 5 guys, and 4 more to fearless. Ouch!

His turn 2, the CSM near the foot nobs got ready to assault them. The remaining rhino tried to move away from the nob bikers, but got immobilized in the lava. The vindicator moved forward to shoot at my advancing left flank mobs. His fleeing CSM squad took out my last deffkopta. His Land Raider blew up the Trukk. His CSM shot at the foot nobs, doing a few wounds. The Vindicator and Defiler killed two more handfuls of boyz from my left. The CSM assaulted the Nobs: all the marines died, but took several nobs with them. My nobs consolidated towards the Abaddon fight. Abaddon and his termie buddy again took only one wound (on abaddon) and killed 5 orks, I was no longer fearless, the orks broke, and I chose to not to try a bosspole reroll since he couldn’t Sweeping Advance, and the boyz proudly ran away. I thought this left me in a good spot to unload with a lot of shooting and an assault from the surviving foot nobs.

My turn 3, still no Snikrot. My left flank Choppas (now down to about 15 boyz) and Shootas (about 18 boyz) angle towards his vindicator and defiler. The nob bikers move for a combined assault on the Land Raider and immobilized Rhino. The fleeing choppa squad doesn’t make it very far, but their partner shoota squad and the foot nobs prepare to unload on Abaddon, which they do, killing him and his termie brother with apparent ease. The nob bikers immobilize the Land Raider and blow up the Rhino. I called the Waaagh, and my left-most choppa squad gets in to the Vindicator, where it is immobilized and the big gun is destroyed.

His turn 3, and the Chosen show up right where he wants them…they come in on my right, near the fleeing choppa mob that was one of his kill point selections. He’s close enough that he’ll be shooting at them this turn and able to assault them next turn even with a large flee move. I mentally added the kill points and realized that this would make the battle a likely minor victory for me. His defiler moved to assault the boyz beating on the vindicator. His last CSM get ready to assault the nob bikers. The Chosen and Land Raider kill off a few of the fleeing boyz, leaving only 4-5 on the table. The Defiler fluffs all his attacks, killing nobody, while the nob finished off the vindicator, killing 9 boyz in the explosion! The nob bikers annihilate the CSM assaulting them. At this point I had all 5 of my kill points dead, while he had 3…if I could keep those boyz alive for one more turn, the game would be over (note we only had 2 hours for each game, and I was unable to get past turn 4 in any of my games…having that many boyz made things go a bit slow, I’m sorry to say.)

Luckily for me, Snikrot showed up for me on my turn 4. I chose to place him right behind the Chosen. He and his Kommando squad would easily have killed the 5 chosen. My opponent and I decided to call it quits there.

The result was a major victory for Shadowklan! I also got 2 “extra” points: 1 for killing the enemy general, and 1 for having more scoring units in his deployment zone than he had in mine. There was a third point available, but it was semi-random: in this mission we rolled a die at the start of every turn after the first; on a 4+ that turn had the Night Fight rule. If you manage to kill one the enemy’s scoring units during that night-fight turn, you got an extra point. We didn’t have our night-fight turn come up, so it was impossible to get that extra point. Still, 19 out of a max possible 20 wasn’t a bad way to go!

After this round they Salvation Army staff had a nice barbeque outside: burgers, dogs, and cupcakes for desert! We milled around for awhile, eating and bragging of our exploits. We eagerly went back inside, waiting to hear our pairings. I started on lowly table 19, but for round two went to table 5! My opponent was an Eldar, with so much fast stuff I was immediately terrified…how could I keep up with that much speed?

Game 2

His list, as best as I can remember, was a Farseer with Doom and Guide, he ran in a Falcon with 5 Dire Avengers. 5 more Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent; Two units of 5 Fire Dragons in Wave Serpents; Two units of 10 Storm Guardians with Flamers in Wave Serpents; A small unit of Harlequin with a Troupe Master and magicky guy. He also had two Prisms and two Vipers with scatter lasers. Yikes!!

This game was Spearhead and Seize Ground with 5 objectives. There were again three extra victory points available: one for killing enemy general, one for having more scoring units in your enemy’s deployment than he had in yours, and the third was a secret objective…you note down which of the 5 is your ‘special’ objective, and you get an extra point if you hold it.

I set up the first objective, and got things arranged so that I had 3 objectives in my deployment near enough to each other that I could have one mob hold them all, but far enough apart that he could not contest two with a single vehicle. He placed two deep in his deployment. After seeing the objectives, I chose to play somewhat defensively: I’d surround my objectives with boyz spread out as much as I could, while keeping him busy with koptas, nobs, and kommandos. I set up in the bottom left corner, he in the top right. I put koptas as close to center as I could, so they could scout and get to something tasty to kill. The bikers I set up to the left of center a bit, while the truck was near my backline, ready to move to the right. The shootas boyz were more “forward”, with the choppas towards the rear…my thought was that the shootas would be able to plug shots in to anything coming close, and if they died the choppas were there to counter. They were all spread out so that he’d have a hard time tank-shocking in and surviving.

My koptas scouted forward, though honestly I don’t remember what vehicles they went towards. I know that again they didn’t manage to actually kill anything (apparently this trick only works versus Eric?), but they did force severe reaction, which is what I wanted. The Bikers zoomed forward to get in his face right away, the shoota boyz moved to get rokkit shots on things, while the nob truck moved slightly behind a building thing that dominated the bottom right quarter of the table. My shooting immobilized a wave serpent and shook and stunned a few more, but nothing nearly as decisive as I’d hoped.

His turn 1, and the vipers zipped forward to try to block movement of the nob bikers. He had some guardians get out of what I think was a shaken wave serpent. He shuffled a lot of things around, but didn’t press towards the objective at all, it was completely reacting and trying to counter the nob push. He shot some mean stuff at my truck, which should have exploded, but I managed to make two 4+ covers. He shot pretty much his whole army, including guide and doom, at the nob bikers, but only managed to do a few wounds which were allocated to avoid any death. 3+ cover on first turn & feel no pain is absurd! It was also key here that I allocated some S8 wounds to the warboss, taking a few wounds on him but allowing the rest to survive.

My turn 2 and my memory gets really fuzzy. I started to not feel too well during this game: this area was very warm, and I had the burger and dog weighing me down, and the lack of sleep (was up late finishing up the painting!) was getting to me. I apologize for the roughness of these next few turns! Snikrot showed up, and I placed him very sneakily behind the Farseers Falcon. The Nob-trukk moved so that the nobs could get out and assault an immobilized wave serpent (with fire dragons in it). The Nob Bikers moved around the vipers that tried to interpose, and managed to arrange a triple assault…storm guardians, wave serpent, and falcon. My shooting was sneaky: the kommandos fired their burnas at the falcon, which allowed them to also get 4 hits on the harlequin…the truck-nobs did the same thing with their kombi-skorchas, getting a few more! Those combined killed off several harlequin. More importantly, the slew of S4 shots at the rear of the Falcon actually scored an Immobilized, allowing me to auto-hit in the ensuing melee! The nobs blew up the fire-dragon’s wave serpent, which killed off a fire dragon and a few more harlequin, which were now down to just two models (I think a regular guy and troupe master?). The Nob bikers shooting killed all but one of the storm guardians, the survivor broke, but I assaulted him, he manned-up and took it, I killed him, the viper, and wrecked or blew up the other fire-dragon wave serpent. Snikrot blew up the Farseer’s Falcon. A surviving deffkopta got to one of the Prisms and blew it up too! A very nice turn for Shadowklan! Sadly the explosion from the Falcon killed off 4 kommandos, and they took off running…Damn you Snikrot for not having a bosspole!

His turn 2, and he was feeling grim. He got some storm guardians, fire dragons, and surviving harlequin ready to hit the foot-nobs. The other fire-dragons and a few wave serpents took aim at the nob bikers that had consolidated deep in to his lines. His Farseer-led dire avengers took out the last deffkopta. Everything that could bear again shot up the Nob Bikers (including 5 fire dragons that did…no wounds!), leaving everything with one wound left, but none dead yet! The firedragons and storm guardians let lose on the foot nobs, killing a guy and spreading some wounds around. They were then assaulted by the storm guardians and surviving harlequin. The battle didn’t go too well for either of us, the nobs getting dragged down by shear number of attacks, while they killed off the last regular harlequin and a handful of guardians. I believe I lost combat but held.

My turn 3, and Snikrot’s guys were running in circles, doubling back on the way they’d had to run last turn. (Actually there had been some discussion about this with opponent, who thought that since there was no direct line for them to run towards my edge last turn they should be destroyed. I told him of the INAT FAQ which clarifies that as long as there is some place for them to run, fleeing units don’t die: that they need to be completely surrounded.) This actually was decisive, as where the landed left them in perfect burna firing range on the farseer’s dire avengers! The Nob Bikers shot up and assaulted a wave serpent and fire dragons, killing both, and consolidated back towards his objectives. One of my Shoota mobz rushed forward to try to help the foot nobz, while their truck moved around behind the big building, my hope was that if the game dragged on it might have a chance to zoom in and contest an objective. My shooting stunned the last viper. The Kommandos melted the entire 5-man dire avenger squad! The big shoota mob got in the fight with the storm guardians beating up the nobs, and their oomph combined with the nob survivors killed off the last of the harlequin and the storm guardians. I had most of that mob left, they consolidated back towards my starting table quarter, while the nobs moved in to the courtyard of the building nearby, getting cover from the 4 angry fire dragons looking at them!

His turn 3, and things just kept getting worse for him. His farseer tried to cast guide, but failed with an 11. He then cast doom on the foot nobs, and succeeded with snake-eyes, and then we had some discussion about the reroll for the invuln required by perils of the warp, and the farseer took a wound. He realized that things were getting down to the wire and he needed objectives badly and was quickly running out of troops. His last dire avenger squad’s wave serpent zipped away from the nob bikers towards the left of the table, ready to swoop down on one of my objectives. Another wave serpent did a tank shock on the shoota boyz that had killed the storm guardians, getting them in a nice clump. His Fire Prism lobbed a shot at them, and again we had some discussion…I thought I should get cover since his Prism was firing through his fire dragons (which were standing high enough on terrain that I thought more than half my mob was obscured). He thought the prism was high enough that he was firing completely over the mob. I envoked the rule that says if there’s some difference of opinion on whether or not a unit is in cover, then make the cover save one less than what it should be, so I rolled my nine 5+ covers, and made one. Sigh. Argument for nothing…sorry! This took the mob close to no-longer fearless, and there were lots of fast flying things around waiting to tank shock and contest! His fire dragons shot at the 3 remaining nobz, killing one, then assaulted and killed the other two, taking no losses! He had just a handful of shooting otherwise, but I don’t remember specifically what shot or what it did.

My turn 4, snikrot was still too close to things to rally. He had two wave serpents close enough to move to contest at the end of turn 4, as well as a viper…I had to do something about those to get a win and avoid the draw. So, I tried…I had a full Choppa mob assault the Wave Serpent with the Dire Avengers. The surviving Shoota boyz assaulted the empty Wave Serpent that had tank-shocked them. The Nob Bikers moved to shoot/assault the Farseer (he was on his own, and too far to be a threat, but he was an extra point…). Other Shoota mob moved to assault the stunned Viper. As I recall, both Wave Serpents were immobilized, and the Viper was destroyed.

This left me solidly holding three objectives, with 3 full boyz mobs, a half a boy mob, near-full nob bikers, and still fleeing but rally-able Snikrot…and a Trukk! He had two immobilized Wave Serpants, one with 5 Dire Avengers (his only surviving troops). He also had one Wave Serpent that was mobile, and one Fire Prism…also 4 Fire Dragons on foot, but they were too far away to make a difference. I was feeling pretty crappy by this point, so suggested calling it a minor win for me. He was quick to accept that, as it probably should have been a major victory (he’d have to get damned lucky to have all those things survive to contest two of my objectives!)….but when we looked at the final scores, I had points for a major victory. I’m speculating that my opponent (who is a regular player with the group that held the tournament) spoke to Bob and Matt to have the score changed? Not sure, either that or a problem with the score tallying? I think I got all three extra points for this one, but I’m not really sure there either.

After that game I went outside for awhile. I paced the sidewalk and sat on the curb for a bit, and the fresh cool air helped a lot! When I got myself feeling human again, I went back in and enjoyed the turkey dinner they prepared for us, and finished just in time for the final round pairings…I was very surprised to hear that I was on table one! I took Shadowklan to the top table, and was very pleased to see a Blood Angel army there…Jawaballz! I thought I had a good shot against that army, so was very pleased….then he came and took his army, and I was left facing a TERRIFYING Guard army: Company HQ with 3 meltas in a chimera; 5 vets (all with slightly different loads, but most were 2 melta & 1 flamer) all in chimeras; 2 medusas; a psychic battle squad in chimera; 3 vendettas; grey knight brother-captain and some grey knight termies; inquisitor with two mystics; probably more, it was impossible to keep it all in my head…there was so much! Every Chimera replaced it’s heavy bolter with a heavy flamer, and the medusas both had heavy flamers as well. I was terrified!

Game 3

This game was Dawn of War and Capture & Control. The extra points were again killing enemy general, and having more scoring units in opponent’s deploy than he in yours…and the special one was secretly nominating a suicide unit (not a vehicle)…you got an extra point if your suicide unit died! Interesting! I chose one of my deffkoptas.

He had the emperor’s tarot, and won the roll to get the +1, but I still won roll for first turn (three in a row!). I again chose to go first, primarily because I wanted to have some control over his deployment. I deployed both choppa mobs right on the halfway line, spread out to cover almost 2/3 of the table’s length.

He deployed three empty chimeras!

On my first turn the choppas boyz ran forward, both of them making it nearly 2/3 the way across the table! The nob bikers, truck, and koptas all went flat out to support the choppas, while the shoota boyz settled in to trenches near my objective…they effectively watched the whole game.

On his first turn he brought on his whole herd. His shooting tore the heart out of both choppa mobs, not much else. I felt I had a chance!

My second turn, and I slammed in to him. The koptas, bikes, and boyz all picked on chimeras, and all found their mark: I think I killed 2 of them, stunned/stripped another, and stripped/immobilized a fourth!

But on his second turn, there was much orky death. The incredible flamer array was relentlessly brutal. One boy mob was annihilated. Another was reduced to just the nob, who broke and ran; the nob bikers were reduced to the painboy and the warboss…but the PBS made sure they failed their morale test and ran. One of the koptas survived, I think…

My turn three, and I was feeling pretty grim, but wasn’t out yet! He’d forgotten the trukk-nobs! The trukk drove behind an immobilized chimera, where the nobs were able to get out, flame the trukk and hit the squad on the other side. A very similar arrangement happened with Snikrot, who came in behind the disembarked Company HQ, but shot at a chimera, their flamer shots killing most of the command squad, leaving the kommandos set up for triple assault vs Command squad, chimera, and a vendetta. The assaults killed off two more chimeras, the command squad (which turned out to be his ‘suicide’ unit), and shook a vendetta!

His turn three, and my memory goes a little hazy again. He did some shooting and assaulted the nobs, but they wouldn’t run away, and 4 of them lived! The vendettas did some shuffling, loading up one of his last two troops in a vendetta…his other was on foot. His terminators were walking in to the teeth of the shoota nobs, I guess trying to survive the massive fire to contest on a later turn? He blew up the kommandos, leaving snikrot alive with just the two burnas, and they passed their morale. I sadly forgot what the PBS did this turn…I remember it being decisive, but can’t rememberwhat it was!

My turn 4, and I saw a glimmer of a chance for a win. I had the strong foot nob squad and snikrot left flailing around his objective…they did a combined assault on his penultimate (word of the day!) troop squad, with no shooting…I wanted to ensure I was in assault range with both so I could bounce off the assault in to cover. Sadly, two of the kommandos died, leaving snikrot alone, but the guard veterans were destroyed and the consolidation got Snikrot in to cover close enough to contest his objective, and the nobs on to a wreck close enough to contest also!

His turn 4 and he quickly saw the danger. Instead of being able to move to my objective, he had to play for a draw…he had to flat-out the vendetta with his last troops to hold his objective and forego mine. He had to shoot up and kill Snikrot and all the nobs, or I’d contest his! Sadly for me, his shooting was still incredible, and he only needed a fraction of his shots to kill off everyone! C'est la vie!

Still, he would need at least 2 turns to get vendettas close enough to contest, and even then he’d have to survive another 40+ boyz, and he was running low on things with which to kill boyz in large handfuls…so we called it a draw, and were both happy to have done that well!

This was by far my favorite game of the day…I looked so out of it at the end of turn 2, but to have the kopta, trukk nobs, and kommandos keep his whole army tied up on his table edge for two more turns was probably my most successful warhammer plan. My opponent was very polite, pleasant to talk to, extremely knowledgeable of the game and tactics, a very competent player…I really enjoyed playing Dan, and hope to get to do so again! He went on to win 3rd place overall, I believe, and it was well deserved!

So I ended the day with two wins and a draw. Other than the other Ordo folks, I had no real idea how the other players had done. I didn’t think I stood much of a chance to place overall, so to hear the announcement that I’d been tied for 3rd & 4th, and was only 1 point behind 1st/2nd (I believe 1st/2nd had 51 points, 3rd/4th had 50…or something like that!) was really shocking! Shadowklan really did well…Nob Bikers are ridiculous! They used a great method for tie-breaking: they looked at the scores of our opponents; those who had opponents with higher scores won the ties, so I ended in 4th place. But I was REALLY thrilled when they announced that I'd been choosen for the best sportsmanship award! I think everyone I played must have scored me highly in sportsmanship because I kept apologizing for the Nob Bikers!

And is if all that weren’t enough to make it a wonderful day, I also won a prize in the raffle! I won a Space Marine Commander box! Yeah! I’m told it was only me and one other guy that put a ticket in for that one…but hey, it paid for the tickets I put in for the Space Hulk!

Thanks to all the Ordo Brother that were there to help make this a wonderful day!

WAAAAGH! GORDREG!

WAAAAGH! SHADOWKLAN!!

WAAAAGH! ORDO INEPTUS!!!

I really do suck at blogging

Months later.... Our tournament was very successful, I think. We ended up with 20 people, with 1 no-show (so Eric and I used Daemons as a "ringer" army). First place went to Chris and his Ice Orks; Second place went to Jason with his Chaos Space Marines (trailing by .6 points!); Third went to John Herlihy and his Chaos Marines! Best Painted went to Sean Nayden's Salamander Marines; with Brian Fox gaining Second in Appearance score! And our last place player, Dante Di Giansante was awarded a Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria box-set...better luck in that game, Dante! :) I think everyone had a good time, I know I did! Hopefully we can use that facility again next year, as it was perfect for what we needed!

40k Tournament

Well, it sure seems to have happened fast! Just a few weeks ago, Eric and I decided to get serious about getting a 40k tournament together, and it's happening! I was able to get the Stony Hill Fire Dept in Bethel to rent us their meeting hall, which has room for 10 tables (though I think space might be a bit tight). I'm very excited to be hosting this event, and hope everyone that participates has a great time! http://ordo-ineptus.com/40ktourny.aspx Hope to see you there!!

Pyramid Challenge!

I've been at the top of our local pyramid for many months now with my Vampires, but nobody wants to fight them. Finally, a worthy and brave Brettonian has stepped forth to challenge me! Guillermo is always fun to play with, and his list will be very tricky...I believe he'll be using the Fey Enchantress and two level-1 damsels loaded with scrolls, and probably two grail knight units and a big unit of pegasus knights. I'm going to try something new for this game. The top pyramid game is at 2500 pts, so here's the list I think I'm going to try: Vampire Lord (2#, 590 Pts) 1 Vampire Lord @ 590 Pts General; Vampire; Level 3 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Undead 1 Abyssal Terror @ [135] Pts Causes Terror; Flyer; Large Target; Undead 1 The Balefire Spike @ [10] Pts 1 The Flayed Hauberk @ [25] Pts 1 Book of Arkhan @ [35] Pts 1 Wristbands of Black Gold @ [30] Pts 1 Aura of Dark Majesty @ [50] Pts 1 Ghoulkin @ [25] Pts 1 Infinite Hatred @ [25] Pts Vampire (1#, 220 Pts) 1 Vampire (Battle Standard Bearer) @ 220 Pts Vampire; Hand Weapon; Battle Standard Bearer; Undead 1 Sword of Might @ [15] Pts 1 Nightshroud @ [20] Pts 1 Talisman of the Lycni @ [10] Pts 1 Infinite Hatred @ [25] Pts 1 Walking Death @ [25] Pts Vampire (1#, 195 Pts) 1 Vampire @ 195 Pts Vampire; Hand Weapon; Undead 1 Walach's Bloody Hauberk @ [45] Pts 1 Avatar of Death (Great Weapon) @ [20] Pts 1 Flying Horror @ [30] Pts Lord of the Barrows (1#, 145 Pts) 1 Wight King @ 145 Pts Barding; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 Skeletal Steed @ [0] Pts 1 Sword of Kings @ [25] Pts 1 The Gem of Blood @ [25] Pts Dire Wolves (5#, 40 Pts) 5 Dire Wolves @ 40 Pts Fast Cavalry; Undead Dire Wolves (5#, 40 Pts) 5 Dire Wolves @ 40 Pts Fast Cavalry; Undead Squad (1#, 100 Pts) 1 Corpse Cart @ 100 Pts Balefire Crypt Ghouls (20#, 160 Pts) 20 Crypt Ghouls @ 160 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead Crypt Ghouls (20#, 160 Pts) 20 Crypt Ghouls @ 160 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead Crypt Ghouls (20#, 160 Pts) 20 Crypt Ghouls @ 160 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead Fell Bats (5#, 100 Pts) 5 Fell Bats @ 100 Pts Flyer; Undead Grave Guard (20#, 270 Pts) 19 Grave Guard @ 270 Pts Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 Seneschal @ [24] Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield Black Knights (5#, 144 Pts) 5 Black Knights @ 144 Pts Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 5 Skeletal Steed @ [0] Pts Varghulf (1#, 175 Pts) 1 Varghulf @ 175 Pts Vampire; Causes Terror; Hatred; Regenerate; Undead Total Roster Cost: 2499 The idea is the ghouls will be spread out across the table, one on each flank. As deployment finishes, I'll pick one flank and load that ghoul unit with the vampires and the Terror beside. With Ghoulkin the vamps should be in range for a charge on turn 1...best case I get Vanhels on Lord and he can join turn 1 also, but more likely he'll get in to the fight on turn 2 from a flank. While they're picking on one unit, I'll have the Guard in the middle and the Varghulf and Black Knights with Wight King pushing the other flank, hopefully crushing that side too while the ghouls take the brunt of the charges. That's the plan, anyway...

I was lucky enough to get another game with El Duque Azul versus Eric's very strong Lizardman army this weekend. The first battle saw El Duque's army completely annhilated, so I retooled the list a bit, trying to make it slightly more capable in the magic phase without going too over the top. Here's the latest incarnation of El Duque Azul Rides Again! Vampire Lord (1#, 450 Pts) 1 Vampire Lord @ 450 Pts General; Vampire; Level 3 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Undead 1 The Flayed Hauberk @ [25] Pts 1 Book of Arkhan @ [35] Pts 1 Crown of the Damned @ [35] Pts 1 Dark Acolyte @ [30] Pts 1 Flying Horror @ [30] Pts 1 Summon Ghouls @ [15] Pts 1 Walking Death @ [25] Pts Vampire (1#, 190 Pts) 1 Vampire @ 190 Pts Vampire; Hand Weapon; Undead 1 Dispel Scroll @ [25] Pts 1 Black Periapt @ [15] Pts 1 Master of the Black Arts @ [50] Pts Lord of the Barrows (1#, 115 Pts) 1 Wight King (Battle Standard Bearer) @ 115 Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Battle Standard Bearer; Undead 1 Enchanted Shield @ [15] Pts Lord of the Barrows (1#, 140 Pts) 1 Wight King @ 140 Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 Skeletal Steed @ [0] Pts 1 Sword of Kings @ [25] Pts 1 The Gem of Blood @ [25] Pts Squad (1#, 100 Pts) 1 Corpse Cart @ 100 Pts Balefire Dire Wolves (5#, 40 Pts) 5 Dire Wolves @ 40 Pts Fast Cavalry; Undead Dire Wolves (5#, 40 Pts) 5 Dire Wolves @ 40 Pts Fast Cavalry; Undead Crypt Ghouls (10#, 88 Pts) 9 Crypt Ghouls @ 88 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead 1 Crypt Ghast @ [16] Pts Crypt Ghouls (19#, 152 Pts) 19 Crypt Ghouls @ 152 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead Crypt Ghouls (19#, 152 Pts) 19 Crypt Ghouls @ 152 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead Black Knights (5#, 199 Pts) 5 Black Knights @ 199 Pts Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Barding; Hand Weapon; Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 Royal Standard of Strigos @ [35] Pts 5 Skeletal Steed @ [0] Pts Grave Guard (19#, 283 Pts) 18 Grave Guard @ 283 Pts Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 War Banner @ [25] Pts 1 Seneschal @ [24] Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield Fell Bats (5#, 100 Pts) 5 Fell Bats @ 100 Pts Flyer; Undead Black Coach (1#, 200 Pts) 1 Black Coach @ 200 Pts Causes Terror; Chariot; Large Target 1 Cairn Wraith @ [0] Pts Great Weapon 2 Nightmare @ [0] Pts Total Roster Cost: 2249

Eric's list (from memory, forgive me the details I forgot): Old Blood with Blade of Realities on Carnosaur Scar Vet BSB on Cold One with poison attacks Two Level 2 Skink Priests on Engines of the Gods; one with a scroll, other with Diadem 20 Saurus Warriors with Standard, Musician, and Spears 5 Cold One Riders Two units of 10 Skink Skirmishers 3 Terradons and 2 Salamanders

For spells he got the "small" lightning spell and portent; and the "big" lightning spell and portent. My Lord got Raise Dead, Danse Macabre, Gaze of Nagash, and Wind of Undeath. Thrall got Raise Dead. I won deployment and chose the side with the terrain I thought best suited to the game I wanted to run: I wanted to sit the grave guard in the middle, with their flank secured on something daring him to charge their front, while the ghouls with corpse cart advanced and the knights and coach drove in one of his flanks. That was the plan, anyways...

(These maps are done from memory, and things are sure to not line up quite right, but you should get the general idea...)

DEPLOYMENT

Vampires are on the bottom, Lizards on the top.

From left to right, Lizards:

Cold Ones, Carnosaur, Saurus, Skinks, Sallies, Skinks (with EoGs behind), Terradons on the end on hill.

VC left to right:

Dire wolves and Fellbats on extreme left, to left of swamp. Grave Guard with BSB near middle. Ghouls side by side each 7-wide, with Corpse Cart and Bunker ghouls behind. Black Coach and Black Knights with Wight King on hill, with Dire Wolves on extreme end.

VC TURN 1

I won the roll and chose to go first. An unlucky start: The Duke failed his Stupidity test, so they blundered forward 2 inches! I flew the Bats to the extreme left where he had no way to charge them, but they could see down his whole line. Wolf1 moved to cut off his fast-flank. Guard move forward just a tweak, covering the left flank of the Ghoul line, which moved forward and turned towards center. Black Knights and Coach move as fast as they can to threaten Lizard's left flank.

LIZARD TURN 1

Eric passed his stupid tests (and would for rest of the battle, no mention will be made). He moved skinks forward enough so that they'd be out of charge range, but able to shoot without moving if I moved forward. Saurus and fast stuff start to move forward conservatively. Terradon fly over Black Knights, dropping their rocks and killing one! Salamanders breathe but kill nothing. No magic of note.

VAMPIRE TURN 2

Felbats fly so that the Carnosaur and Coldones can't get past without charging them, but if they charge they're stuck facing the wrong way. Wolves move so that overrun will keep them stuck if they choose to. Direwolves move backward on to hill, and Lord flies out and joins them. All else moves forward, continuing to push the flank. Lord gets off Vanhels on wolves, charging the Terradons, killing two and breaking them, but restrain pursuit (I should have gone after them, not sure why I didn't...)

LIZARDS TURN 2

The Carnosaur and Coldones try to squeeze past the Fellbats. Skinks and Sallies move forward to shoot. Engines move forward a bit to support. Skink shooting and Salamanders kill a few ghouls. Terradons rally.

VAMPIRES TURN 3

Black Knights and Black Coach charge skinks on hill, Ghouls charge Salamanders. All choose to take the charges. Terradons again move to block the fast flank, with wolves continuing to play goalie. Wolves 2 move back to top of hill, while Lord moves in to Ghouls 2. Knights and Coach annihilate skinks, overruning in to an Engine. Ghouls break Sallies, and pursue in to other Skinks. A few invocations go through restoring some losses.

LIZARDS TURN 3

Tired of the obstruction, the Carnosaur and Cold ones charge the bats. Terradon moves to shoot at corpse cart. Saurus wiggle past the ghouls moving towards the Guard. Corpse cart is targeted by lightining bolts, and takes a wound. Burning Alignments kill some Knights and ghouls. Ghouls kill skinks and pursue in to other Engine. Coach and Black Knights kill Skink Priest! The fast Lizards blast thru the Bats, frenzied Carnosaur has to overrun in to Wolves.

VAMPIRES TURN 4

Ghouls 2 with The Duke charge the last Terradon, killing it. The Guard move up to allow the Saurus to charge. Wolves are annihlated by Carno and Coldones, Carno again has to overrun. Ghouls on Engine 2 do a wound to Priest, but can't kill him. Coach, Knights, and Wight struggle to do a wound to the Stegadon. Vampire Thrall summons some Zombies to try to guard the Grave Guard's flank. Losses from Burning Alignment restored.

LIZARDS TURN 4

Warriors charge the Guard. Carnosaur marches to threaten the read of the Vampire army! Last priest won't die. Stegadon won't die. Grave Guard enjoy the ASF provided by the Corpse Cart, but still lose the fight by a bit. Coldones reform to try to get in to the fight. Burning Alignment again does damage to Knights and Ghouls.

VAMPIRE TURN 5

More zombies are created to redirect the Carnosaur off the rear of the Guard. Vampire Thrall leaves the bunker to avoid Carnosaur. Ghouls2 gets ready to throw itself in to the Carnosaur if needed. Wolves move forward to try to hold table quarter. Stegadon down to one wound. Second priest refuses to die. Losses restored to Black Knights and Ghouls 1. Grave Guard lose combat by a lot when the Saurus spears in the second rank weigh in. Wight BSB challenged, accepted by the Scar Vet BSB, starting a long series of wiffs in which I couldn't get the Killing Blow I was hoping for before the Wight BSB was killed.

LIZARD TURN 5

Carnosaur and Coldones charge zombies, killing them and both overrunning...Carnosaur in to bunker Ghouls. Graveguard lose combat by a ton, dwindle down to 3 Guard + the BSB. The Stegadon finally dies! Burning Alignment continues to punish Knights and Ghouls, even doing a wound to The Duke himself! The Corpse Cart takes a wound from Lightning and from Burning Alignment.

VAMPIRE TURN 6

Surviving Black Knights and Coach (which, by the way, is Ethereal by this point!) charge the remaining Engine. Carnosaur kills the Bunker ghouls, with small overrun. Knights, Coach, and Ghouls still can't do final wound to Priest. Grave Guard restored to full strength.

LIZARD TURN 6

Carnosaur has no LOS to anything, so moves to threaten the Corpse Cart (which has kept ASF up on all the vampire forces for the whole game!), while the Coldones move to hit Grave Guard flank. Graveguard dwindle a lot again. Burning Alignment leaves just one Black Knight, and barely enough Ghouls for a rank, but the Wight King finally killing-blows the Skink Priest! Man that 2+AS is rough! Wight BSB dies, grave guard crumble to a handful again.

We'd lost track of turns, and ended up a turn off. Now Eric thought we'd been playing forever, but I thought things were going very fast, I was very "in" to the game and didn't notice the passing time, so when we tried to count backwards to see where we were, we ended up a turn off...no big deal, more playing is good! :)

VAMPIRE TURN 7

Ghouls 2 charge the Carnosaur's flank. Thrall vamp moves to get away from Carnosaur. Grave Guard are again restored to full. Second Steg proves as hard to kill as the first, with no wounds done. Carnosaur and Old Blood tear apart the Ghouls, but enough survive to keep him tied up for his next turn.

LIZARDS TURN 7

Coldones finally throw themselves in to the fight, combining with the remaining Saurus (10 left at this point) to crush the Grave Guard, crumbling down to 8 survivors. Carno and Old Blood kill off the ghouls. A wound is done to the last Steg, but not enough for half points.

Eric seemed to feel really down about the game until we actually added up the points. We both took relatively light losses, despite the death of one of the Engines and both Priests. With the points added up, it was a draw! A great game that had me on the edge of my seat through the whole game! While I kept the Carnosaur tied up for the first few turns, it wasn't enough to keep him from rampaging through half my army. The overrun of the skinks in to the Engine allowing the kill of the Pirest saved me from overwelming Burning Alignments, and allowed a fighting chance to get two of the three big point sinks (which I think were needed to win!). Similarly, I kept my high-point value items intact for the most part, preventing a lot of points lost to the Lizards!

El Duque survives to fight again...one day we'll defeat those Lizards!! Thanks for a great game, Eric, I'm looking forward to the next!

The Undead Might of El Duque Azul

Since I've been challenged on the Fantasy Pyramid (finally!), and since we've been fiddling with this army composition scoring system ( http://atlantis.sverok.net/WPS/RT_WPS_Comp.pdf ) to gauge how "hard" our armies are, I've spent the whole evening blowing off the battle report I promised Arlin I'd do, instead trying to come up with a Vampire Counts army that scores half-way decent with the scoring system I found, that I can field, and that I would enjoy. Like most VC army lists, it's dependent on magic. I also enjoy a lot of speed, including some flying. It's got a lot of big beefy infantry units, including a wight king BSB-led Grave Guard unit (with spears...I wanted to do Great Weapons but ran out of points!). A unit of Wight King led Black Knights to sneak thru the trees and terrorize flanks, some Cairn Wraiths with a Banshee to pick on, well, anything. And a Black Coach, because it's just too cool. This is 2500 points, and scores 2178 in that comp system. I'm quite pleased with it...let me know what you think! Vampire Lord (1#, 440 Pts) 1 Vampire Lord @ 440 Pts General; Vampire; Level 3 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Undead 1 Sword of Might @ [x] Pts (+1S) 1 Walach's Bloody Hauberk @ [x] Pts (4+as, 5++) 1 Wristbands of Black Gold @ [x] Pts (3++ vs. all ranged) 1 Dark Acolyte @ [x] Pts (+1 magic level, making him lvl 4) 1 Flying Horror @ [x] Pts (Fly) 1 Forbidden Lore @ [x] Pts (Can pick Vamp or any BRB Lore, knows all spells of that lore in addition to Invocation) Lord of the Barrows (1#, 135 Pts) 1 Wight King (Battle Standard Bearer) @ 135 Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Battle Standard Bearer; Undead 1 Royal Standard of Strigos @ [x] Pts (Bearer and unit has Hatred) Lord of the Barrows (1#, 140 Pts) 1 Wight King @ 140 Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 Skeletal Steed @ [0] Pts 1 Sword of Kings @ [x] Pts (Killing blow on 5+) 1 The Gem of Blood @ [x] Pts (1st w taken rebounds) Vampire (1#, 195 Pts) 1 Vampire @ 195 Pts Vampire; Hand Weapon; Undead 1 The Flayed Hauberk @ [x] Pts (2+ AS) 1 Black Periapt @ [x] Pts (Saves a magic/dispel die) 1 Talisman of the Lycni @ [x] Pts (M9) 1 Avatar of Death (Great Weapon) @ [x] Pts (hvy arm & gw) 1 Infinite Hatred @ [x] Pts (rerolls all to-hits) Squad (1#, 100 Pts) 1 Corpse Cart @ 100 Pts Balefire (-1 to enemy cast roll within 24") Dire Wolves (5#, 40 Pts) 5 Dire Wolves @ 40 Pts Fast Cavalry; Undead Dire Wolves (5#, 40 Pts) 5 Dire Wolves @ 40 Pts Fast Cavalry; Undead Crypt Ghouls (10#, 88 Pts) 9 Crypt Ghouls @ 88 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead 1 Crypt Ghast @ [16] Pts Crypt Ghouls (20#, 160 Pts) 20 Crypt Ghouls @ 160 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead Crypt Ghouls (20#, 160 Pts) 20 Crypt Ghouls @ 160 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead Black Knights (5#, 169 Pts) 5 Black Knights @ 169 Pts Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 Standard of Hellish Vigour @ [x] Pts (can march without vamp) 5 Skeletal Steed @ [0] Pts Grave Guard (19#, 258 Pts) 18 Grave Guard @ 258 Pts Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 Seneschal @ [x] Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield Fell Bats (5#, 100 Pts) 5 Fell Bats @ 100 Pts Flyer; Undead Cairn Wraith (5#, 275 Pts) 4 Cairn Wraiths @ 275 Pts Great Weapon; Causes Terror; Ethereal; Skirmishers; Undead 1 Tomb Banshee @ [x] Pts Causes Terror; Ethereal; Undead Black Coach (1#, 200 Pts) 1 Black Coach @ 200 Pts Causes Terror; Chariot; Large Target 1 Cairn Wraith @ [0] Pts Great Weapon 2 Nightmare @ [0] Pts Total Roster Cost: 2500

Minos and Giants and Spawn...Oh My!

Trying a little makeshift photography...thanks to the wife for her help!

Here's a shot of a dragon I'd done right after the GW Washes came out. He was primed white, and everything except the teeth/claws was done with washing. It's certainly not a great work of art, but he was done in just 2 hours and looks pretty handsome. The saddle is a work in progress...I'm not much of a greenstuff guy, yet!

Here's a spawn. The intent was to make him look like raw muscle, tendon, bone, and talon. The multiple eyes just kind of happened as I picked fun pieces off the spawn sprue...Khorne likes his minions to maintain situational awareness, of course!

Here's a few shots of Fred the Giant. Not sure how he got the name Fred, but I'd intended to tattoo it on his belly, but want to finish up some other things and practice my free-hand on a less sizable canvas!

And last for tonight, here's a sample Minotaur, with the addition of a chaos-y tail. All the minos will have the same coloration: the pale human-tone skin, with the red fur.

I'm not sure on how I'm going to do the basing...I think a simple and fast grass will be the best (cows should live in a pasture, after all)...the green should contrast nicely with the reds on the minos!

Another month, another post.. DE and Minotaur updates!

Well, the Dark Eldar have had some limited success playing on Vassal. I've made some ebay purchases (two used raiders and three NIB ravagers, some more warriors) and have I think all the pieces to put together the army. I haven't really assembled anything or even worked on a color scheme: they're on-hold until Moloch's Stampede is done. I've had a few games using the Minotaurs now, and have had mixed success. Most of the failures have been due to a few specific problems: I keep getting killed with challenges (My heroes charge in along with a mino herd, have to accept challenges, and the mino herds stand there and watch...the heroes aren't killy enough to blast through many things, so are killed while the herd loses their only chance to strike first with their great weapons); and I'm unable to pull off the front/flank combo charges I need to ensure a win. So I've done two things with the list: I've reduced the number of characters, and increased the number of minotaurs! The Khornegors are gone. I love the models and was looking foward to painting them, but they're slow, didn't add anything to the army, were too easily baited, and don't really fit the theme. The BSB is gone. Without the Khornegor unit, he didn't really have a home and seemed more a liability than anything. The Doombull gets The Slaughterer's Blade. Hopefully this will help him survive, but I haven't tested yet. If it doesn't work out I'll go back to regular great weapon and buy more hounds...can't go wrong with more hounds! This is where my list is now: Doombull (1#, 269 Pts) 1 ~[(^One or more selected options present a potential usage conflict]×~[(#]Doombull of Khorne @ 269 Pts General; Mark of Khorne; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Causes Fear; Frenzy 1 Slaughterer's Blade @ [40] Pts Wargor (1#, 105 Pts) 1 ~[(^One or more selected options present a potential usage conflict]×~[(#]Wargor of Khorne @ 105 Pts Mark of Khorne; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Frenzy Beast Herd (10#, 60 Pts) 5 Gors @ 60 Pts Musician Mus; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon 5 Ungor @ [20] Pts Spear Beast Herd (10#, 60 Pts) 5 Gors @ 60 Pts Musician Mus; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon 5 Ungor @ [20] Pts Spear Chaos Hounds (5#, 30 Pts) 5 Warhounds @ 30 Pts Chaos Hounds (5#, 30 Pts) 5 Warhounds @ 30 Pts Chaos Hounds (5#, 30 Pts) 5 Warhounds @ 30 Pts Chaos Hounds (5#, 30 Pts) 5 Warhounds @ 30 Pts Minotaurs (3#, 183 Pts) 3 Minotaurs of Khorne @ 183 Pts Mark of Khorne; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Frenzy Minotaurs (3#, 183 Pts) 3 Minotaurs of Khorne @ 183 Pts Mark of Khorne; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Frenzy Minotaurs (3#, 183 Pts) 3 Minotaurs of Khorne @ 183 Pts Mark of Khorne; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Frenzy Minotaurs (3#, 183 Pts) 3 Minotaurs of Khorne @ 183 Pts Mark of Khorne; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Frenzy Minotaurs (3#, 183 Pts) 3 Minotaurs of Khorne @ 183 Pts Mark of Khorne; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Frenzy Minotaurs (3#, 183 Pts) 3 Minotaurs of Khorne @ 183 Pts Mark of Khorne; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Frenzy Minotaurs (3#, 183 Pts) 3 Minotaurs of Khorne @ 183 Pts Mark of Khorne; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Frenzy Chaos Spawn (1#, 75 Pts) 1 Bloodbeast of Khorne @ 75 Pts Causes Fear; Unbreakable Chaos Spawn (1#, 75 Pts) 1 Bloodbeast of Khorne @ 75 Pts Causes Fear; Unbreakable Chaos Giant (1#, 205 Pts) 1 Chaos Giant @ 205 Pts Causes Terror; Large Target; Stubborn Total Roster Cost: 2250 My attempts at taking pictures of my guys have not been successful. My wife and I are working on some ideas to help, hopefully more mino photos soon!

Dark Eldar!

Well, I love my Boyz, but that was a marathon of Ork painting and playing, and I'm at Ork burnout! Since I managed to find a heckuva bargain on some used Dark Eldar, I've commited to expanding the army and painting up The Kabal of the Scourging Flame! One of the guys in Fairfield sold me 30+ Warriors, 10 Wyches, some IC, 2 Raiders, a Talos, and a GW case for the bargain-bin price of $80...I couldn't say no, of course. None of them are really painted, just a touch of different colors on them. In attempt to build up the force to a 1500pt competitive list, I jumped on Ebay and spent tons of money I shouldn't have: about $150 got me 2 more Raiders and 3 Ravagers! So the list I'm putting together: HQ: Archon (1#, 172 Pts) 1 Archon @ 172 Pts Splinter Rifle (x1); Combat Drug Dispenser; Shadow Field; Tormentor Helm; Punisher; Plasma Grenades; Reaver Jetbike HQ: Haemonculi (1#, 45 Pts) 1 Haemonculi @ 45 Pts Scissorhand; Destructor HQ: Haemonculi (1#, 45 Pts) 1 Haemonculi @ 45 Pts Scissorhand; Destructor HQ: Haemonculi (1#, 45 Pts) 1 Haemonculi @ 45 Pts Scissorhand; Destructor Elite: Wyches (10#, 214 Pts) 8 Wyches @ 214 Pts Close Combat Weapon; Splinter Pistol; Wych Weapons; Combat Drugs; Plasma Grenades 1 Succubus @ [42] Pts Agoniser; Splinter Pistol; Wych Weapons; Plasma Grenades (Squad) 1 Raider @ [60] Pts Dark Lance; Horrorfex Troops: Warrior Squad (10#, 100 Pts) 10 Warrior Squad @ 100 Pts Splinter Rifle (x8); Dark Lance (x2) Troops: Warrior Squad (10#, 100 Pts) 10 Warrior Squad @ 100 Pts Splinter Rifle (x8); Dark Lance (x2) Troops: Raider Squad (8#, 126 Pts) 7 Raider Squad @ 126 Pts Blaster; Splinter Rifle (x5); Splinter Cannon; Raider 1 Raider @ [55] Pts Dark Lance Troops: Raider Squad (8#, 126 Pts) 7 Raider Squad @ 126 Pts Blaster; Splinter Rifle (x5); Splinter Cannon; Raider 1 Raider @ [55] Pts Dark Lance Troops: Raider Squad (8#, 126 Pts) 7 Raider Squad @ 126 Pts Blaster; Splinter Rifle (x5); Splinter Cannon; Raider 1 Raider @ [55] Pts Dark Lance Fast Attack: Reaver Jetbike Squad (4#, 163 Pts) 3 Reaver Jetbike Squad @ 163 Pts Splinter Pistol; Blaster (x2); Splinter Rifle (x1); Combat Drugs; Reaver Jetbike 1 Succubus @ [68] Pts Punisher; Splinter Rifle (x1); Tormentor Helm; Plasma Grenades; Reaver Jetbike Heavy Support: Ravager (1#, 120 Pts) 1 Ravager @ 120 Pts Disentegrator (x3) Heavy Support: Ravager (1#, 120 Pts) 1 Ravager @ 120 Pts Disentegrator (x3) Hopefully the plethora of Dark Lances will allow early disabling of enemy armour, leaving infantry exposed to what I hope will be considerable fire from Raider-mounted infantry and Disentegrator fire. Test runs on Vassal, and small 1k game using what I have has seemed to validate the concept. The Kabal of the Scourging Flame needs a color-scheme, though. Dark Eldar tend to be very dark, something I'm hoping to avoid...without making them look too happy, like goody-goody Eldar. I'm going to aim for purple, maybe lych and warlock purples, with some near-pink parts. Squad markings (helmets? shoulders? gloves?) will be something else I'll need to work out. When I get some test models done (time conflicting with Mino painting, which is going slowly, btw) I'll get some pictures up.

Two posts in one day?! WTF?!

Well, I've already started work on my next Fantasy army. I've always had an odd fetish for Minotaurs, but they're $25/model these days! I started bidding on them on ebay last year, and have slowly amassed a fair number of them, including some ancient models I had from the late 80s/early 90s. The Beasts of Chaos book in it's current form is not the most competitive, so I don't expect great things from this stampede, but I really like the idea of this Minotaur led army completely dedicated to Khorne! The list I'm working on now is something like this: Doombull with Mark of Khorne, hvy armour, great weapon Wargor BSB with MoK, Chaos Armour Wargor with MoK, Hvy Armour, Great Weapon Beastherd 8/8 with FC (GW Wargor goes here) 14 Khornegors with FC and Warbanner (BSB goes here) 5 Warhounds 5 Warhounds 6 Warhounds (Doombull will go with them) 4x 4 Minotaurs with MoK and Great Weapons 2 Spawn of Khorne and Fred the Giant Here's some pics of the test minos I'm working on :

Apparently I suck at Blogging!

I guess I'm not of the right temprament to maintain a Blog, as months and months go by with no updates! The Daemon army turned out to be very successful. I had the bases textured before flying to Texas (Bobby didn't help, but the loving Wife did!). While there we spent several evening doing the base painting, layering up the ashen waste look. Then we painted the sides of all the models a nice crimson color, contrasting nicely with the ashen look. We even managed to get the movement trays done! I ended middle of the pack at the Alamo GT. I think my painting score was a 64. I won my first two games (against Hordes of Chaos Tz army, and a Ork led by Lvl4 Shaman army), then got a draw in my third game. This was against another Daemon player. He was the only one I gave a 'negative' score to for sportsmanship, not only for his army comp (minimum core, Bloodthirster, etc) but his attitude and interpretations made the game less than fun. I was most proud of my play during this game, though my "just say yes" attitude led to my opponent taking away all my advantages (disallowing a charge that I thought was perfectly legal; "helping" me move my models while I was walking around the table, lining up a charge vs. skirmishers contrary to how I wanted the overrun to work). I outmaneunvered his BT so all it managed to do the whole game was kill the Fiends, and Flamers, and took half wounds doing it. Moreover, it was pointed out to me by a person that played him later that he had dice with a "special symbol" replacing the 1....then another set that had them replacing the 6....so he'd roll them together and count all the specials as whatever he needed. I didn't directly witness this, but seemed in keeping with the WAAC attitude. No biggie, I hope my interpretation of the chap is way off...but I don't want to play him again. The second day I had a loss vs. a very experienced Empire player with a gorgeous army (Jeff Schlitgen..I believe he was #2 or 3 overall in the US this year). Final game was my favorite, against Mike Scalletti and his undead Dark Elves. I managed a draw against the invuln Lord on Dragon, Ring of Hotek, 2 Hydra list of doom! I was quite pleased with the result! After coming home, I learned that a nearby gaming club was having a tournament with a $100 first prize! It was 2000 points, with no special characters. I replaced Skulltaker with a 'regular' Khorne herald on Jugger, dropped some horrors, the fiends, and the furies, and replaced the -2 to casting banner with the -2 to Ld banner. Wow is that thing a bargain! After seeing the results, I'd take that thing over the casting banner any time! I went 3 for 3, with the final match being a very near run thing against a new Warriors of Chaos list (those guys are hard to kill off!!). I had a great time there...lots of fun folks and not too far to drive! Since then I've taken to 40k. There are many more 40k gamers in my local gaming community, so I figured I'd learn and have a better chance at finding games. I tried my hand at using the Daemons in 40k, but was constantly left irritated by their random deployment rules...I never felt in control of my army! So, with the new edition boxed set came out, and I got all these gorgeous Ork models, I went for them. With some cheap pickups on Ebay, and using the $100 gift certificate from the tournament, I quickly amassed a sizeable Waaagh! Mostly footslogging, with a Trukk and some Bikers for support. I was pretty successful with them, as they fit my 40k playstyle (no complication, just run at things and kill them!), and continued to grow my collection. In February the place in Fairfield announced they were having a smaller 40k-only tournament in March. Great! A chance to use my Orks! Alas, they made completely painted armies a requirement! My ork army was somewhere in the area of 120 models, and 6 weeks to paint them! I worked pretty hard, first at finalizing a list, then at the painting. I got them all done, including a quick coat of paint on the bases to give them the desert feel I wanted (more on my 'Fluff' later!) two days before the Tourney! I used a lot of Foundation and Wash quick techniques that worked out very nicely for slightly above table-top quality (imo).

I went 2 wins and a draw, and got 9/10 for presentation, getting me first place overall! I was one point ahead of 2nd, who was one point ahead of 3rd, who was one point ahead of 4th! Tight competition! I had some of the most intense 40k games I've played, and really enjoyed the look and feel of playing games with all painted armies! With the $50 I got some GW terrain for the club here in Danbury to use.

Well, that's all for tonight...it will probably be another 6 months for my next update! :)